FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT A

[cappie]

As Jesus walks, he encounters a blind man. The disciples, operating under the assumption expressed in Exodus that “The sins of the father are visited upon the children,” ask Jesus whether this man’s blindness is the result of his sins or the sins of his parents. Jesus tells the disciples, “Neither. This man is blind so that God’s glory can be revealed.” Then Jesus reveals God’s glory by healing the man with mud. Jesus re-forms the earth from which the man is made, and through no work or merit of the man’s own, the man is remade.

In all the Gospels, healing means  to be restored to community—and to show God’s power, so, this unnamed blind man is taken to the religious leaders. He’s interrogated and pushed away. Rather than defending him, his parents tell him to stick up for himself.    

After the Pharisees question the man (and doubt him), then question his parents—to be sure he was actually born blind—and then question him again, they’re at their wits’ end.  

The Pharisees, are shocked: A man born blind sees again because a carpenter put mud in his eyes and had him wash in a special pool? And he did it on the Sabbath? It’s easy to understand their incredulity

On the other hand, here is a man who’s never seen before. Someone he’s never actually seen makes mud, puts it on his eyes, and tells him to wash in the pool of Siloam. He does and suddenly he has vision, such as he’s never had before.     

It is to understand the Pharisees’ incredulity, it’s also easy to understand this man’s exasperation with their persistent questions. He can see! That’s really all he knows. Whoever made it possible, however they did it, isn’t really his concern. He just wants to enjoy this gift that’s new to him, a gift that everyone around him takes for granted

Here are the words the gospel records: “ Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you don’t know where he comes from! We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but God does listen to men who are devout and do his will. Ever since the world began it is unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of a man who was born blind; if this man were not from God, he couldn’t do a thing..”

 As the Pharisees continue to question him, this man’s belief only deepens. His faith and trust in Jesus grow. 

After the man is driven out, Jesus finds him. Jesus does not abandon him as his parents and the religious leaders have done.  Jesus asks, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied ‘tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You are looking at him; he is speaking to you.’ The man said, ‘Lord, I believe’, and worshipped him..’” 

These last few verses of today’s Gospel hint at why we hear this passage on the Fourth Sunday in Lent. During Lent, the church invites us to reevaluate our lives (again) and see how well we are—or aren’t— following Jesus.

 When John writes about belief in the Son of Man, he’s writing about putting our faith and trust in Jesus and his life-giving work of redemption. This is not intellectual assent or generic support. This “belief” means putting one’s whole life into Jesus’s hands, relying on Jesus for everything, and—like this healed man—worshiping Jesus, through whom all things have been made.   The man born blind is a model for the church throughout the ages, in part, because he doesn’t do anything to earn God’s favor. His life exists to show God’s glory—he is healed only because of God’s grace.

 Our first two readings speak of a God who ‘looks at the heart’ not simply our self-presentation. This is what informs God’s way in directing Samuel’s choice of a king. And like the prophet, we have to learn to see as God sees.  While Paul speaks of discovering ‘what the Lord wants of you’ by facing into the darknesses of our lives and letting them be illuminated by the light of Christ.  As those about to be baptised at Easter reveal to us, this transformation is at the heart of Lent.  

Pray that when we are asked “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” as we reaffirm our baptisms at Easter, we can answer, “Lord, I believe.”